Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments generally relate to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a recording medium and an image forming method performed by the image forming apparatus.
Background Art
Related-art image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, facsimile machines, printers, or multifunction printers having two or more of copying, printing, scanning, facsimile, plotter, and other functions, typically form an image on a recording medium according to image data. Thus, for example, a charger uniformly charges a surface of a photoconductor; an optical writer emits a light beam onto the charged surface of the photoconductor to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor according to the image data; a developing device supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor to render the electrostatic latent image visible as a toner image; the toner image is directly transferred from the photoconductor onto a recording medium or is indirectly transferred from the photoconductor onto a recording medium via an intermediate transfer belt; finally, a fixing device applies heat and pressure to the recording medium bearing the toner image to fix the toner image on the recording medium, thus forming the image on the recording medium.
Such fixing device may include a fixing rotator, such as a fixing roller and a fixing belt, and a heater that heats the fixing rotator to a fixing temperature at which the fixing rotator melts and fixes the toner image on the recording medium. However, while the recording medium is conveyed over the fixing rotator, the recording medium draws heat from the fixing rotator, decreasing a temperature of the fixing rotator. Accordingly, the fixing rotator may suffer from shortage of heat.